Magical Monopoly
by Alayna Black
Summary: James discovers a muggle boardgame in the attic. He and Sirius journey through Monopoly Classic together, discovering it's secrets. Rated T for some events/descriptions of events.
1. Chapter 1

**Based on a random idea I had very later at night (ie, now). It should be interesting, and a little light relief for me to write. I hope you enjoy it. Reviews would be much appreciated, as would ideas for each square. This is based on the London Edition of Monopoly, should you want to look it up. **

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"Hey, Lils, What's this?" James said one day when he was going through the attic. It had been a year since they had finished Hogwarts and moved in together, but their attic was already full of clutter and useful things. So far, he had uncovered a few old novels of Lily's, and an old pack of exploding snap cards.

"I can't answer because I don't know what it is," she called back up to him from where she was doing the dishes in the kitchen. Lily always insisted on doing it this way, since she said that magic didn't clean them nearly well enough. She sighed as she waited for James to materialise with probably yet another of her books, since he had been asking that question at regular intervals all afternoon. Her husband soon materialised and placed a box down on the kitchen table. "oh, that's just a muggle board game." she said.

"Monopoly." he said slowly, "what do you have to do?" He shook the box slightly, and was almost shocked to hear things rattling around inside of it.

"Well," she started, pulling the plug from the sink and drying her hands, "You start with some money, and you kind of buy stuff, and when people land on the boxes you can charge them if you own that one. I'm not really doing it justice, it's pretty fun really."

"Hmm," James said, "Sounds kind of boring."

"Well, it would if you grew up with Wizards Chess and gobstones." She sighed slightly, "Why don't you invite Sirius over and you can be bored with it together. It might become more interesting if you add a little firewhiskey to the mix"

"Wow, Lily Ev-Potter, encouraging me to drink," he grinned, "I might just do that."

The board game was left on the kitchen table over night, and James thought little else of it. He had made a mental note to owl Sirius, and then went back to the attic. Nothing else up there really took his fancy though, and so out of boredom he simply finished the tidying job with a flick of his wand.

"How's babs?" he asked Lily later that day as she lay on the sofa, leaning against him. She smiled in recognition of the nickname he had given their baby, before responding that since she was barely pregnant at all, she was sure that he or she was just fine. This seemed to content James, as he smiled a genuine smile, with no hint of laugher or arrogance, and kissed the top of her head. For a few moments, he just revelled in thinking how lucky he was for his life to have turned out this way. His beautiful wife had gone from hating him for six years to being completely in love with him. Sometimes it paid to listen to Remus Lupin's advice.

They soon retired to bed, and James gave the box one last look before he flicked the light off in the kitchen, and followed his wife upstairs.

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"So what you're saying is," Sirius said slowly, peering at the board suspiciously, "we just move these little things - I'm being the dog, by the way - around the board, and we can go to jail, and get community chests and things."

"The community chest isn't what you think it is, Padfoot," James said, laughing slightly, "but that's what Lily said."

"I didn't even say what I thought it was! But now you mention it…" he eyed it with a little more hope than suspicion now.

The two men looked closer at the board, and got their wands out, as though it might be containing some sinister secret. "It doesn't seem right." Sirius sighed, "what is so fun about that? It really is just a board game." He gave the board another irritated prod, and James did the same at exactly the same time. And suddenly, they had been pulled head first into the board.

"What is this place?" James said in shock, looking around. They were in a rather large, spacious room, which contained a few couches by the window, a scattering of leaflets on the table, and a long counter along the back. "Why are those people trapped?" he looked at the people behind glass screens that seemed to be passing something through to those going to their counters. He also noticed that people seemed to be getting something from the bleeping silver boxes embedded in the walls.

Sirius walked to the table by the couches and took a leaflet - "Discover the infamous slaughters of Whitechapel and Fleet Street, move 3 lots or a lot more" he read. "Sounds good," he grinned. "I love a good murder. Come on." He started walking towards one of the 'trapped' people, and began to speak.

"Er, Hello, My name is Sirius Black and I was wondering what I am doing here." he stated pleasantly, observing the man with much interest.

"Here you go sir," the man behind the glass said, appearing not to notice the peculiar way in which Sirius was looking at him, "Two hundred Monopoids. Enjoy your journey. Two for you as well, sir?" He added, seeing James, who nodded and took his money. They began to walk away, but James turned back quickly to speak to the man again.

"Where did you say we were?"

"I didn't," the man replied, "you are currently in the bank of Go. Your money is for passing. Good day to you, Mr Potter."

The two men looked down at the money in their hands with confusion, walking to sit in the couches by the window.

"What do you suppose we do now?" James said, rubbing his chin slightly, "Lily will be worried sick if I'm not back soon…" he looked sort of distracted, and looked out the window at the bright sunny day.

"More than usual?" Sirius said, laughing slightly, tossing his head slightly to flick some hair from his eyes.

"She's pregnant," James grinned, but still looking slightly worried and moving a hand to mess up his hair, a habit he had been unable to break for at least 5 years now.

"Congrats," Sirius offered, leaning back in the sofa. "I'm sure she'll realise what's happened. Smart girl that Lily. In the meantime…" He leant forward to take another leaflet. "The Angel, Islington. Come rest your weary bones with a cool pint or three. Sounds fun, how 'bout it, Prongs?"

James nodded slightly, looking over the other leaflets with interest. "I suppose a little exploring couldn't hurt…" he picked up a few and ran his eyes over the words. What shocked him most however was the fact that the pictures on them were unmoving.

"Right." Sirius said, sounding as though his mind was made up. "Let's go, then."


	2. Old Kent Road & Comm Chest

**Sorry it's been such a long time coming =] It's also not very long, so i'm working on that. Hope you enjoy it :)**

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The two men walked along for a few minutes, before they passed under a huge, swinging brown sign. James adjusted his glasses and doubled back to read it, before looking again at the area they found themselves in. For some odd reason, where in the Bank of Go everything had been rather clean looking, this place seemed to be well…brown.

"Where are we?" Sirius asked, leaning against a lamppost and waiting for James to return from looking at the sign. He wrinkled his nose slightly as he took in the area around him, wondering vaguely why it was so dirty.

"Old Kent Road." James said, "Whatever that is. Says here it used to be part of an old roman road leading to Holyhead."

"as in the Harpies?" Sirius said, a little more interested now.

"No, as in the place." James replied. "We can buy it if we like. 60 of er…these." he waved the hand still containing his money, and Sirius gave a snort of laughter.

"This place is a dump, I'm not spending my good money on it."

"You're just saying that because it's brown, and you don't like the colour brown." James said, but still sounding relatively amused. "Come on, lets explore a little bit"

They set off down the road, and before long, Sirius had rushed ahead, and by the time James had dawdled up to him, he was clutching a rather odd looking trolley. "Let's go in here." he said, "It sounds fun."

James looked up at the building - B&Q. "Thrilling" he had muttered, before following Sirius into the shop. They wandered around the aisles for a little while, occasionally registering their amazement at a nut or bolt, before coming to the lighting section. James frowned at the many lights for a while, and put a hand to his pocket where, to his amazement, he found Dumbledore's put-outer. He grinned at Sirius before taking it from his pocket and started to click it. Eventually, the entire building had been plunged into darkness, and the sound of things smashing and people shouting reached their ears.

"Time to go, I think." James said, a satisfied smirk on his face, before dragging Sirius away from where he had his wand illuminated and was investigating something called a 'plug'.

A little further up the street, and they found a rather odd brightly coloured shop. James looked up to read the sign, but only could make out a rather large giraffe. He shrugged and began to walk in all the same, when Sirius reached out to grab his arm. "It might be a trap" he whispered. James just rolled his eyes and continued to walk in, and Sirius eventually followed him, looking around suspiciously.

"And why exactly would this building be a trap, if not any of the others?"

"It's too bright," came the reply, and James just laughed at this. "Wow, Look!"

The two men approached the objects with caution, inspecting each inch of one or two of them. "Aren't these what muggles call…'cars'?" Sirius asked, a hand on the steering wheel of one.

"No." James answered, "Well, yeah, I guess, but these are mini ones." He looked at the chains attaching the small cars to their display, and took his wand from his pocket, giving them a tap. The chains quickly retreated, leaving the car able to me moved. He did the same to the chains trapping the car Sirius was examining. "Time for a little fun, I think…" he grinned.

"And I was beginning to think living with Evans was finally taking its toll on you, Prongs,"

For the next fifteen minutes, they raced around the shop, banging into each others cars and generally wreaking havoc on the shop, laughing madly. They only stopped when a large, burly man stood in their path. They quickly got up and adjusted their clothes, James his glasses.

"They are toys for children, not adults." The man said in a slow, deep voice.

"Technically," Sirius began, "We're neither, since neither of us is 20 yet." He gave the man what he imagined to be a winning smile.

"Actually, you know, we were just standing around, admiring these...toys, and all of a sudden they just…swept us up from behind" Sirius started sniggering as James said this, "And well, we got a bit carried away," he finished. "Sir."

The man sighed, and eventually let them go after they demonstrated a rather nifty trick, that turned his shirt inside out, without it even coming off. This baffled him almost as much as how they managed to cut the chains through so cleanly. James and Sirius just smirked as he marked his amazement at this.

Leaving the shop, and seeming to have over-enjoyed themselves with the small muggle cars, they sat down on a bench to see where they would be headed next. Unfortunately, the bench was simply a cardboard box pretending to be a bench, and promptly collapsed as they put their weight onto it.

"There's a community chest ahead." James pointed out, "you can see if Lils was right."

With that, the two men took off up the street towards the blue area, marked with an overhead swinging sign, "Community Chest".

Unfortunately for James, Lily had been sorely mistaken. Unknowingly, obviously, since when she assured him it was not as the name would suggest, she had been talking about the board game in itself, rather than the world that lay below it.


End file.
